A Good Day to Die/Chapter OneB
Lottie Rochester awoke to feel the cold metal of a gun barrel against her forehead. At first she felt as though she was dreaming, a nightmare of what could happen in this already nightmarish world, but then she heard a voice. "If I were you babe, I wouldn't move a muscle" said the voice from above her. It was the person holding the gun, a young woman, probably around nineteen years old, with cherry read hair. She spoke with an accent similar to Lottie's own, one typical of a Leicester girl. A huge green coat rested on her shoulders, and a chain of dog tags from her neck. "Who are you?" Lottie asked, for some reason not worriedly. She sat up, but as soon as she did so, the woman spun behind her and pressed the gun against the back of her head. "That's not important right now, I need you to walk outside." She gave Lottie a gentle push, as if encouraging her to stand. "Why do I need t- wait, where are my friends?" Lottie had suddenly realised that the room was empty. In hindsight, she thought, she should've noticed that when someone was able to put a gun to her head. "What the hell have you do-" "Less talking, more walking, it'll all be clear when we're outside. And before you try and object, I'm the one with the gun, so don't try anything stupid." The woman grabbed Lottie by the collar of her shirt and marched her put of the living room and through the front door of the bungalow. "What the..." was Lottie's first reaction when she saw the vehicle outside. It was like one of her dad's army models, but bigger. She had always found them so interesting, but wasn't allowed to touch them. She reached out to it, but the slight awe she felt was shattered when she saw her friends standing next to the truck. Her boyfriend Tom was standing with an arm around her friend Haley, who seemed to be holding back tears. Wire was watching on nonchalantly, as always. The most shocking was Bill; he was on his knees, with a look of hopelessness on his face. Bright, enthusiastic, happy old Bill; her favourite teacher; was a very picture of despair. It was only when her eyes left Bill that she noticed that three men and one woman, all in similar military gear to the woman behind her, were holding them at gunpoint. "Last one Des" the woman called. "Go stand with your friends" she said to Lottie as she gave her one last shove, this time in their direction. Almost immediately, Lottie ran to Tom and fell into his arms. "Lottie, are you alright?" Tom asked as he embraced her. Lottie could see that he was stressed, as he'd been sweating so much that his eyepatch had started to slide down his face. "I'm fine, she didn't hurt me." "If she did, she'd have to answer to me." "I love y-" "I hope you don't mind, but can we save the niceties until later?" asked a loud and threatening voice. A fourth man climbed out from the cab of the vehicle, and Lottie decided rather quickly that his appearance matched his voice rather well. He was a tall and bulky man, who gave her the impression that he was some sort of human tank. A green beret rested on his head, sewn onto which were a winged dagger and a banner bearing three words: Who Dares Wins. "Who are you?" Bill asked, speaking up for the first time since Lottie had left the house. "My name is Captain Desmond Carter, Twenty Two Special Air Service Regiment. For those of you without any brain cells, that means I'm SAS, and I could probably kill all of you with one hand." "You could kill us with one bullet" Wire pointed out. "You don't need to threaten us." "It's not a threat boy, it's a warning." Desmond growled. "Admittedly, we have guns, but a gun can't do as much as a man can. No doubt you've seen what people can do nowadays; if they don't come back to eat you, then they try to steal from you or rape you or kill you. My gun can kill you, but if you hurt my people, I can do much worse. Do you understand me boy?" "Yes" Wire replied quietly. "I beg your pardon?" "Yes...sir..." "Good lad, I like a bit of respect" Desmond chuckled, reaching out and patting Wire on the shoulder so hard that he staggered forward a little. "You're probably all wondering why we dragged you out of your cosy little bungalow, so I'll tell you. We have a community, fortified and well defended, run by former servicemen and women. We can take you there, and you'll be safe from this world." "Why on earth should we trust you after what you just did?" Bill asked, rising to his feet. "How can you even imagine that we'd go with you?" "Because we're your only chance old man. You're obviously capable people, you've survived out here for two fucking years, but your luck will run out. The rotters are grouping together; and if we want to survive, as a species, we have to do the same." "We can handle your 'rotters' just fine..." Bill fumed. "Can you handle the people though? What about people who used to be in gangs or the military, hardened killers who may just have access to firearms. Will you handle them with-" Desmond glanced at the pile of weapons his group had taken from the bungalow. "Some rounders bats, a crowbar, a spade and a longbow?" "W-we can...we can survive..." "Don't kid yourself old man, it won't help you, or the kids." He turned to Tom. "What do you think of what your dad has to say, he is your dad right?" "Our teacher" said Tom. He looked at Lottie, Haley and Wire; and then gave Desmond a steely glare of determination. "We agree with him, that's what we think." "You idiots leave me no other choice..." Desmond sighed. He pulled his sidearm, a rather large handgun, from his belt, and pointed it at the air. With a second sigh, he emptied the clip into thin air, causing the unprepared group in front of him to wince at the sound of the shots. "What the hell was that for?" Bill asked rather angrily. "That was the dinner bell for a band of rotters about a mile away. I counted a few hundred of them, and now they're coming this way. Do you really wanna be around for when they get here?" "We can get away if you assholes let us go!" Tom shouted. As soon as he saw the look of rage on Desmond's face, he knew that he'd made a terrible mistake. "I'm sure that you've realised by now that you're coming whether you like it or not. Unfortunately for you, young man, I rather dislike being spoken to in that way." Desmond shot forward before Tom could react and grabbed Lottie by the waist, immediately pivoting on the spot and thrusting her towards the red haired woman. The woman grabbed her, and despite Lottie's screams and shouts of protests, refused to let go. "You people need to be taught a lesson." "You're mad..." Bill growled. "No, you're mad, mad for not listening to me when i was being reasonable. Mad for not taking me up on my offer of sanctuary." He turned to the woman. "Yaz, take her round the other side of the truck and pop a few in her head. The next one of you to protest gets her raped as well." Lottie couldn't help but to scream as Yaz dragged her round to the front of the truck. Both to her horror and to her immense relief, her friends stayed silent, and for a moment she felt as if they didn't even care. Her screaming was stopped when Yaz pulled out an old rag and used it to gag her, before tying her wrists behind her back with cable ties. Lottie watched in horror as her captor drew her pistol, opened her satchel, and pulled out...a watermelon. Yaz raised a finger to her lips, indicating for Lottie to stay quiet, before placing the watermelon on the ground and firing three shots into it, splattering it's juice all over the road. As Tom and Haley began to sob with grief just metres away, Yaz quietly opened the door of the cab and threw Lottie inside. She climbed in herself, pushing the girl over into the middle seat of the three, before slamming the door. "Stay quiet and the gag comes off, okay?" Lottie nodded, and Yaz untied the gag. "Before you say anything, we're not bad people, we just find that 'unenthusiastic' passengers are easier to transport if they're overcome by grief. You'll be amazed by what we have, you really will, you just need to see it. The Colonel's made one hell of a place." "If it's full of people like that guy out there, it can't be that good. He's horrible." "Stop right there babe." Yaz said as she reached down into her satchel and pulled out a cigarette case. "Desmond's the nicest guy I know, period. Why do you think he does all this, because he hates everyone? "Yes." "You're wrong, so fucking wrong. He does this because he wants to save lives, and people are most safe at our camp. Everyone who we take back there against their will loves the place, but for some reason, they never forgive Desmond for forcing them. He's willing to become a hate figure in order to save lives, and I respect that more than anything else in the whole wide fucking world." She paused, and then smirked. "Besides, why would I be dating his son if he's an asshole?" "His son?" "Yeah, his name's Marshall, that fine piece of dark meat in the back of the truck. Don't tell me you didn't have some naughty thoughts about him." "He's your boyfriend?! Wow, you really have got it sorted haven't you." "I know right, I hit the fucking jackpot with him." "Ka-ching" Lottie giggled. Yaz fought back a grin for a brief second, before bursting out with such a strange laugh that Lottie couldn't help but to laugh herself. For the first time since the world went to hell, Lottie Rochester felt as if she had made a friend. Credits *Lottie Rochester *Yaz *Tom Morris *Haley Lewis *William 'Wire' Enton *Bill Davison *Desmond Carter *Brooke Rhodes (no lines) *Norman Michaels (no lines) *Mohammed 'Hammy' Bilal (no lines) *Marshall Carter (no lines) Trivia *In the original draft, Hammy took Yaz's role. Category:A Good Day to Die Category:A Good Day to Die Issues Category:Issues Category:Katie